Set in New York City, single mom Holly O' Neill works at a vintage clothing shop called Secret Closet where members of the New York High Society send in designer clothes and accessories to be sold for charity or commissions. She loves her job and her young son Danny though she constantly frets that Danny will miss out from not having a fatherly figure in his life.
While sorting out a new batch of clothing sent in to Secret Closet, Holly chances upon a charm bracelet in the pocket of one of the pieces. Having a charm bracelet herself which she treasures, Holly postulates that the owner of the charm bracelet found in the clothing will be distressed by its loss. Determined to reunite the charm bracelet with the owner, Holly pulls out all the stops even if the only clues that she has are the charms themselves.
Greg Matthews, a banker at a top Wall Street brokerage firm in Lower Manhattan is no longer content with his plushy job despite the high income that he commands. Burned out, he decides to pull the plug on his job and chases after his passion - photography, instead. With his savings and girlfriend Karen's job, he is confident that they will be able to get through the first few months while he scouts around for photography jobs. However, after he breaks the news to Karen, she is less than delighted and worries that they may not have enough to get by.
As usual, I am not going to spoil the ending for ya. :) It is sweet and perhaps yes a lil predictable, but I love it nonetheless. I actually bought this book at a bookstore after work on a whim because the boyfriend wasn't too happy that he just spent 30 minutes with me at the bookstore and we were about to walk off empty-handed. *shoots him a baleful look* But I AM glad I did because having read the novel last year, it is going to one which I am going to re-read over and over again in the time to come. Moving on to what I like -
The characters which the author has created are very real instead of fluffy duffy (which I had the misfortune of reading from other novels)- it could have been anyone out there with the same concerns as them. I can identify with Karen's displeasure when she found out about Greg quitting his job without discussing it with her.
She breathed heavily, as if she suddenly felt the weight of the world rest upon her shoulders. She looked around at their well-appointed living room, as if trying to figure out what they'd need to sell first.
"Baby, come on. Think positive. We are going to be fine." Greg stood up and reached for her. "I have faith in myself. I believe in what I can do. I thought you did too?" He hated how pleading he sounded. This is not how he pictured this conversation.
Karen locked her eyes on his face and she said, blankly, "I do have faith in you, but I also thought that you considered me an equal partner in this relationship."
"I do!" He said defensively.
"I'm not so sure, Greg. You just put a lot of responsibility on my shoulders and you didn't even care about my opinion enough to consult me before you did it. You just ASSUMED."
My favorite characters in the novel have to be Greg's parents - Jeff and Cristina, who are a loving couple. They set the stage for true love. In fact, love is a recurring theme in this book. Within Greg and Karen, Holly and her son Danny, and eventually, Holly and Greg whose paths are crossed when the novel is approaching the conclusion. A favorite quote of mine from the novel about love would be -
"Skating, it is a bit like true love - both parties must move fluidly in tandem together in order to achieve true perfection."
Speaking of the conclusion, I love it when novels wrap up nicely instead of a hasty harried one & Melissa Hill has done a great job with this novel. :)
The author has an adept way of making words come alive - I could clearly picture each scene in the novel with her descriptive and engaging lines even though I've never been to NYC before! Fans of chick lit will undoubtedly enjoy this one. It's my first time reading a book by Melissa Hill and it's certainly not going to be the last. :)
I rate it out of 5 likes:
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